change password frequently
If you don’t have a well-crafted strong password, a clever hacker can easily compromise your privacy and security, causing devastating loss and excruciating pain in your life.
Passwords are designed to protect us from bad actors such as crooks, hackers, thieves, snoopers, catfish crawlers, and criminals gaining access to some of our most important online accounts.
If you don’t have a well-crafted strong password, a clever hacker can easily compromise your privacy and security, causing devastating loss and excruciating pain in your life.
security company, special forces, By looking at 800 million cracked passwords, a report on some of the weakest passwords in use in 2022 was created and found that many users are making the same mistake using common guessing words.
Bad password choices span all genres, from the names of popular sports teams and players to seasons and even top-selling recording artists.
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A computer keyboard is seen with letters stacked to form the word “password” in this illustration photo taken in Warsaw on December 12, 2013. (Reuters/Kacper Pempel) (Poland – Tags: Science Technology)
Which passwords should I avoid?
Some of the top-ranked password words and numbers include:
- password
- password 1
- abc123
- Aa123456
- 123
- welcome
- 111111111
- 12345678
- 1qaz2wsx
- rapid eye movement
- Cher
- pink
- red
- Angel
- Rays
- summer
- Yoda
- star wars
- Ewoks
- Rocky
- Thor
- rocky
If you used the passwords above, it’s time to change them.
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How do I come up with a good password?
There are some ground rules for creating a good password that are very difficult for hackers to crack. Following these guidelines may help you narrow down what should and should not be used.
Make sure your password contains at least 12 characters
The longer the password, the more characters a hacker has to try, the better. Anyway, some sites will ask you to make your password a certain number of characters, but at least 12-14 characters or more is usually a safe bet.
Include numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters
Again, the more variety you have, the better. Make everything as random as possible to prevent hacking. For example, a password like “d%A$r(T496” is harder to crack than “dart496”.
avoid dictionary words
Any word by itself does not apply to passwords. It’s easy for hackers to make a lucky guess from common dictionaries, such as “cat” or “apple.” Even a combination of dictionary words like “blue car” is too easy.
don’t use substitutes
Replacing letters with commonly used symbols can also lead to bad news. For example, if you wanted to use the word “smart” but wrote it as “$mart”, it would be too obvious because the $ sign and the letter S look so similar.
How can I keep my password safe?
In addition to the simpler password guidelines listed above, two other ways to keep your passwords secure are to use different passwords for different accounts, and to avoid writing passwords down everywhere.
However, keeping track of all these letter and number combinations can be very difficult, especially considering that most tasks are done online and we need to have many accounts.
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That’s why we recommend using password manager.Password managers are apps that allow you to create, store, fill in and manage passwords for every task you do online, from online banking to shopping to medical records. Many password managers also include login encryption, which makes it (including password manager companies) harder to guess your passwords.
No tool can provide perfect security
Password managers are not immune to their own security flaws, including those we tested and ranked as top solutions. Recently, LastPass customer data was compromised. Cybercriminals are able to obtain vault access credentials which, if pried open, can be devastating.
A quick fix for one of these security holes is to periodically change your main vault password. This is the master password used to access all stored password vaults. If you’ve been using any password manager, I recommend changing your main vault password immediately.
Which password manager should I use?
social media password
(Cyberguy.com)
Our top password manager picks are Last pass. LastPass keeps all your passwords in an encrypted vault and offers a ton of other features along the way, including:
Free Trial: You can try the premium features for 30 days. If you don’t want to upgrade to a premium account at the end of the 30 days, you can choose to revert to the free version.
Unlimited password and note storage
Secure Password Generator
Automatic Sync: You can add passwords to one device and it will automatically sync across all browsers and apps.
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One-to-Many Sharing: You can securely share usernames and passwords with multiple people.
1 GB of file storage for private/sensitive documents such as passport or license information.
Security Dashboard and Score: You can assess the strength of your passwords and monitor your passwords to prevent any known data breaches.
Dark Web Monitoring: This feature monitors all accounts you have saved with this manager and alerts you to data breaches.
Emergency Access: You can grant one-time access to another LastPass user in an emergency.
LastPass will now allow users to log into your master password vault through the LastPass Authenticator app.
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Our favorite feature that makes creating and storing passwords super easy is the Secure Password Generator for quickly creating secure passwords:
password management
(Cyberguy.com)
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Learn more about the last passVisit CyberGuy.com/Passwords and other good password manager companies
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